


Kisses and wars (the ones I give, the ones you own)

by penmedown (Acnara)



Category: Original Work, Rol Legendario, ibaria rol
Genre: Before the campaign, Beteseb needs a warning of her own, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Slice of Life, getting together and then well, implied onesided Eovordin/Ren because I say so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:27:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25943563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acnara/pseuds/penmedown
Summary: Surprisingly, the idea came to her thanks to her dick of a brother.-Or, he was a boy, she was a girl. Can I make it any more obvious?Or, he was a tavern boy, she was a lady in a humble village that wanted more. What more can I say?
Relationships: Ren Aedus/Beteseb Harust
Kudos: 5





	Kisses and wars (the ones I give, the ones you own)

**Author's Note:**

> A little something I wrote from the backstory of my DnD character, Ren. I love Beteseb heart and soul.

Surprisingly, the idea came to her thanks to her dick of a brother.

Beteseb was aware that Eovordin and her had been close, once. She even remembered it, those times when they were both young and carefree, hiding from their parents and their soldiers around the city. Eovordin would let her jump onto his back and run around, the air on her hair and her laugh against his neck. They would play pretend, making every soldier a dragon the two of them had to escape, every building a tower high enough to touch the sky, every threat something Eovordin could just outrun with Beteseb's help. And then, one day, he stopped even looking at her. 

She remembered his excuses, back when Beteseb was still young enough to run after him asking for his attention. His brother had told her he had  _ outgrown her _ , and even at the tender age of eight she just  _ had _ to laugh. He had turned to his swords and his knight games, walking around town as he owned it, no time for his stupid sister and her stupid games. Yet, even almost seven years later, Eovordin still was the most childish man her sister had ever met. 

Still, sometimes, he was useful. Like now.

Beteseb had been looking for a way to teach a subtle lesson to her friend, Apélira. Nothing too harsh though, since she  _ was _ her friend. Most of the time. Nowadays Giralda was the only thing really keeping them together. But no matter, Apélira would come back to her soon enough. She always did. In the meantime, she had something to prove. Something that would lower her dear friend's ever growing ego. 

She could admit Apélira’s words had stung when she screamed them at her. Beteseb had always been good at managing her friend's harsh personality, so losing her control over Apélira so overwhelmingly for her to not only think, but  _ say _ , those things… it had been a major shock.

No matter, no matter. She knew what could make Apélira remember her place in the Fort. Right below Beteseb's every wish, that was.

From the crenellate, the wind in her hair and a small smile upon her lips, she followed the boy walking down the street with her eyes. Eovordin was walking behind him, with that insufferable friend of his, Lender. Her brother's friends were always brutish and stupid. Just like most men in this small, nothing town. They said something and the boy answered, and while Beteseb was too far from them to hear –too far, too high, too uninterested, honestly– whatever he said made his brother turn an angry shade of red. Eovordin raged, and Beteseb wondered if she could maybe,  _ maybe,  _ kill two birds with a single shot. 

The boy turned with a big smile on his face, and Beteseb could imagine why Apélira would put her most expensive dresses on when walking through the market every wednesday. At least her friend had decent taste in men, as far as looks went. The boy shouted something and disappeared, Eovordin following him like a rabid dog after a bone. 

Hadn't she kissed that boy once? Back when Giralda had told her it could catch her brother's attention once again? The smile on her lips quirked into a smirk. 

How ironic. 

-0- 

He was not surprised when she first approached him. Not as much as he should have been, anyway. Beteseb knew some other girls had… asked for his attentions, lately. Those incidents had given her the general idea of seducing him in the first place, but still. She was no  _ common girl _ approaching him. She was the highest born lady in the entire Fort, save her mother.

The casual way he shrugged and ignored her flirtatious tone irritated her to no end. And the more offended, the more affronted she became, the wider his smile got. His rejections became more and more teasing, as if he was having fun refusing her. She had no idea why he did it.

When she started to feel her control slide, the boy’s eyes almost catching her hands trembling in anger, she decided to retire back to the Fort. Back to the boys who would sell their swords for a fraction of her attention, to the servants that would kiss the very floor she walked on if she so seemed to desire. She was meant to be a Lady in the Royal Court. Her very name meant more than that stupid boy's entire life. And he had dared to laugh and tell her to go back to her princes _.  _ As if he could see something better in the ugly, short girl he had been talking to when Beteseb had approached him in the market.

Beteseb was not just angry, she was boiling with rage.

It was war _. _

-0- 

She had one of her favorite dresses on. She had jewelry on her hair and perfume on her skin. She was the most desirable girl in the dirty roads of that godforsaken town, and when he spotted her in the crowd Beteseb saw him blink in disbelief. She smiled, victorious, right before he threw his head back and laughed. 

He dared to laugh. She felt heat up her neck when he asked if she was lost. If she needed help. The absolute imbecil _.  _

She acted as if she hadn't walked all the way from the top of the city to see him, to impress him, and she hissed like a snake about to strike when Eovordin took a look at Beteseb and asked her if there was some party he had forgotten about right in front of  _ him. _

-0-

_ “You are Eovordin's sister right? Well, whatever you two have planned, leave me out of it.” _

Eovordin's sister. Beteseb, reduced to something as unimportant as  _ Eovordin's sister _ . The nerve.

If she hadn't been so keen in making Apélira watch her steal the boy she lusted for, Beteseb would have gotten him thrown into the dungeons just for that.

-0-

He thought her pretty, Beteseb knew that much. Most people thought that of her, but she knew Ren Aedus found her desirable. It was in the way his eyes would stay a second too long on her lips as she talked. In the way he would lean towards her just so. How his breath seemed to rush just a little, just enough, whenever she got a bit too close. 

She would even dare to say he found her beautiful. 

It was good. Better than what the other girls in Fhe fort had been able to do with him. And still, not enough. Beteseb didn't want Ren to just think of her as beautiful. Apélira deserved to see her rude simpleton drooling behind her  _ bitchy, nasty, intolerable  _ friend. Beteseb wanted Eovordin mad at her for choosing his self proclaimed enemy to bend to her will. 

She wanted the rush of rebelliousness Irena Rensend had whispered about, when flirting with boys so below her status that even the maids would blush. The forbidden fruit of the bizarre, unknown life of the town that laid at the feet of the Fort. The other girls were aware of her intentions, and this was now a game. They hadn't yet invented a game where Beteseb ever lost _. _

Sometimes, he would look at her for a moment too long, and Beteseb would feel something warm curl inside her. Pride, maybe. Triumph, even. If he smiled a bit too sharply, a teasing comment meant to scare her off rolling off his tongue, his canines just barely visible, she could even admit to herself it to be lust.

Maybe it was starting to become a bit personal, too. 

-0- 

When it finally happened, even Beteseb couldn't really explain it. It had been months of them circling each other. Maybe more like Beteseb forcing him to acknowledge her, showing up in the tavern and on the market, stopping him in the streets and scaring away her brother and his friends when she found them around him. 

Months of Ren refusing her, talking about his brother and the other girls from the Fort, how she wouldn't fool him. Months of arguing, quick remarks and even quicker comebacks. And while Beteseb had never given up –because she didn't give up, she planned, she worked and she achieved– it was shocking when it finally happened. When walking down the street, complaining about something she couldn't even remember, he had stopped dead on his tracks to look at her. She hadn't even noticed at first, and when she turned to look at Ren his stare had left her speechless for a moment. 

_ “You know, _ ” he had said, “ _ You win. I think I like you.” _

Just like that, as if that moment hadn't been Beteseb's only goal in the last months. He said it so casually it was almost outrageous. So she didn't expect it when he pulled her close and kissed her.

It ended far too soon. Ren had barely parted Beteseb's lips, his tongue had only delved into Beteseb's mouth for a moment before he pulled back. Ren released her, leaving Beteseb to stand on her own suddenly unsteady feet.

“ _ And I think you like me too.”  _ He said softly against the warm summer breeze.

He kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed her, as if he had been waiting a lifetime to do so– and she kissed him back. 

  
  


-0-

Apélira was furious, but she didn't confront Beteseb. Naive, coward Apélira never would. She would never let her own feelings get between her friend's relationship. But she burned whenever she saw Beteseb leaving the Fort, down and down into the town.  _ Undeserving _ , her tight smiles said.

The rest of the girls were envious, in that way only greedy and selfish people could truly be. Irena clung onto her whenever she would catch her leaving, trying to tag along and being quickly dismissed.

Eovordin was insufferable, as always. Rude, but he started to avoid her. Good. He was particularly unreadable, and Beteseb didn't have time for his particular brand of weirdness.

Their father didn't approve, of course.  _ Be careful _ his eyes warned. They stared down at Ren whenever he saw him around the Fort gates, waiting for her. When Ren took a liking into walking her home, her father would stand by the inner door so they wouldn't take long. Once, Ren kissed her right there, her father's eyes unforgiving over them, and she felt like a one-woman-only rebellion. 

Her mother only laughed, her smile warm against her forehead when she found out. “ _ He is pretty.”  _ She told Beteseb, a mischievous and knowing glint in her eyes.  _ Have fun, _ she laughed.

She intended to have fun.

-0-

Things didn't change that much. They still walked around town, bickering about everything and anything. But now, sometimes he would pull her close. Sometimes  _ she _ would. 

She felt surprisingly carefree.

-0-

The hills were a peaceful place, save for all the bugs. But her book was interesting and the wind was nice, the autumn chill setting upon them. 

“What are you even reading?” 

Ren's head was on her lap, and he was playing with the ends of Beteseb's hair. He twisted them around his fingers carefully, prompting a nice tickling sensation on her scalp. He had been quiet for a long time, watching her read under the tree, so she answered him. 

“It's a new book, father got it for me two days ago, in Isati. It's good.”

“What is it about?” 

“Wisdom. Fortune.” She looked down at him, unable to help the teasing smile from spreading across her lips. “Love. The fun part.” 

“Really?” He smiled up at her, suddenly interested. He pushed himself up, and continued to twist the ends of Beteseb's hair, pulling her ever closer, like he was reeling in a fishing line. Beteseb thought Ren might suddenly wrap the whole thing around his fist at any moment and pull, as her brother used to do when they were young and he was mad—but no. He twisted the locks slowly, tortuously so, gradually drawing her in.   
  
Beteseb was soon near enough that she could make out a slight scar under Ren's nose, right above his lips. Heat and amusement were coiling together somewhere deep in her chest, making it hard to focus on anything other than that slight, faded scar; those curling lips. The heat from Ren’s breath fanned her face. The aroma of dust and mint filled her lungs.

“Maybe I should read you a bit. You might even like it.” She said, turning her face just as he was about to kiss her. Ren laughed, and made a non-committal sound as his lips found her neck. She closed her eyes, the wind changing just enough to make Ren shiver against her, and she smiled. 

Ren left one last warm, wet kiss against her pulse and she started reading out loud.

“ _ There was such a place on a small mountain, everywhere away from our roads, [...]; on its summit there was a villa with a large and beautiful patio [...], with lawn around and with wonderful gardens and with fresh water wells… _ ”

-0- 

The first letter came to her by Senz, her chamber servant. The girl was giggling, the red on her cheeks bright as a fever. She handed Beteseb an envelope, her face shining with glee.

When Beteseb read it she couldn't believe it. What an idiot.

“ _ And that's your favourite part? It's cheesy.” _

_ “It's actually really romantic. Love letters are beautiful.” _

_ “Why can't they just… talk to each other? They are right there.” _

_ “Because it's romantic, Ren. It doesn't have to be pragmatic, it's just a silly book.” _

_ “But you just said you liked it, when you were little.” _

_ “Can't I enjoy silly things? You love plenty of them, you know?” _

Still, she can feel her lips curl around the edges as she reads. She is not twelve anymore, but that night she puts the letter inside her jeweler, and she can't help but re-read it before sleep.

The smile on her lips is so soft some might mistake smug for fond. 

_ I still think you are too smart for this, _ Ren signs at the end of his letter, _ but whatever. _

-0-

Ren spent a lot of time on high places, she learnt. He liked climbing trees and running around roofs. He said he liked the view, and sometimes when Beteseb looked at him she could swear he was a bird about to open his wings and fly away.

He had plans beyond this little nothing town, he would say. And Beteseb could only agree, because she had them too. She had plans so far above and beyond this town and the Fort that sometimes her life didn't even feel real yet. Everything was just a step towards a greater goal, a bigger plan. She knew where she wanted to be, and it was not in the shadow of his idiotic brother, the family heir. She would reach the very top. Her wings were twice the size of Ren's, and her will ten times stronger. 

-0-

“So you want to leave.”

“That has always been the plan, yeah.” He said, tracing lines against the naked skin between her shoulder blades. She could feel his heartbeat beneath her ear, calm against the wild winter wind outside the house. Öllüm had been running around Tentudia for months now, and He still howled like the first day. Beteseb brushed Ren's sweaty hair from his forehead, soft like a caress. 

“Hmm?” she breathed, knowing there was something else he wanted to say. His nose always twitched in a particular way when he was thinking hard about something. She was not afraid to call it cute, now. 

Ren shrugged, his eyes wandering around his room before they settled on her again. 

“It's just… I don't know. Maybe I could stay.”

-0-

The shepherdess, Ren´s friend, didn't like her. She never said anything, at least not when Beteseb was there, but the couple of times they had seen each other that Pei girl had looked at her weird. 

It didn't look like she had complained about her to Ren though, because he was never different with Beteseb after that meeting. 

Eventually, he learned to stop trying to push them into a friendship. They both lived their separate lives, Ren as their only thing in common. It was good, just as Beteseb liked it. 

-0-

Her father was gladly surprised when he found her down in the kitchen, ordering Tiff around to make some lemon pie for dinner. Beteseb smiled at him, and told her Ren had been teaching her how to bake some sweets. His father's smile tensed, but the troubled look on his face left as soon as it had come. 

Eovordin, on the other hand, refused to even taste the thing. Their mother smiled, and asked for details once they got alone. She laughed as Beteseb told her how they had managed to bake even though she had ended up covered in flour.

-0-

Of course, Eovordin had to be the one to find the letters. 

He probably had been trying to pick up whatever punny servant boy Ren had lured this time into sneaking her a letter –because Ren just  _ had _ to make it look secret, as if her parents didn't know about them– and found out about the letter. He had read it too, by the looks of it, and he was now furious at her sister's door.

“Care to explain _?”  _ He burst out, shoving the letter on her face.

“Are you going through my correspondence now?” She hissed back, her cheeks warm. “That's low even for you, Eovordin.”

“I thought this wasn't serious. I thought you were having fun-” 

She snatched the letter from his grip, trembling in anger.

“It's not like that's any of your business, is it?”

“He writes you love letters? And what? You write him back?”

“And what if I did! Why do you even  _ care _ ?!”

And Eovordin just stood there on the edge of her door, looking at her as if he wasn't sure what he was doing there, either. He looked mad, and lost. Maybe, in the past, Beteseb would have felt pity for him.

“Leave me alone, Eovordin. Go to bed.”

Beteseb closed her door, but she still had to wait some time before she heard her brother's steps walking away.

-0-

As spring came, she sneaked out of the Fort some nights. Ren and her looked at the stars or roamed the town, it didn't seem to matter to Ren. They kissed in dark alleys, tasting of alcohol she  _ knew _ was not his, and she would drunkley laugh against his warm tongue and spoke about love. Her smile was so big her face hurt. 

He drank it up as a man dying of thirst.

-0- 

She had always liked looking at people. Try and figure out what the random passersby thought, where they were headed. People usually found it odd. 

Ren found it odd, but sat with her and offered the wildest, most absurd ideas he could think of as Beltane came and, with it, the merchants.

“See those? I bet they just defeated a dragon, but then got robbed of all the treasure by a band of goblin assassins. Then, they probably found the fountain of the unlimited red dye. Heading to K'adi, for sure.”

They were eating strawberries, and Beteseb was not about to ask where exactly he had gotten them. She bit into another one.

“That's absurd. I bet they come from Tólada, ready to sell their fabrics in the dwarf markers of Duelva.”

“Is that a bet?” Ren asks.

“Want to make it one?” 

He smiles, and she finishes the sweet berry with a pointed look in her eye.

“And what does the mighty Lord want, if he wins?”

“Oh, you know me. I would give my entire kingdom for a kiss, my lady.”

And it was all teasing because Ren didn't even have a room of his own, sleeping in the tavern he worked on, much less a kingdom. But she placed a hand on Ren's chin, pushing it so his cheeky eyes would look down at her and found herself smiling anyway.

-0-

He didn't like the water, so he would just sit there and do his secret readings while she bathed in the river. Beteseb was sure he was reading cheesy poems to write in his letters. It was sort of a game, her trying to find out which books he had taken them from.

She smiled devilishly, and took her clothes off slowly. Her long hair looked golden in the afternoon light.

The next time Ren looked up from the book to find her pale skin against the clear water and the warm sun, he didn't look back down.

-0-

Everyone looked at her. She knew she was beautiful, had spent the whole morning making sure of it. There were flowers in her hair for Litha, her clothing light and green for the goddesses of nature, and she knew herself to be the most envied woman in town. She didn't need any confirmation of her beauty, never had, especially not today.

Yet when Ren finally saw her, his eyes going big and soft, she still preened _. _

-0-

Ren was chaotic, that was the only way to describe it. He went up and down like the sea, throwing himself into things and often changing his mind mid-fall. It was troublesome in the most charming way.

-0-

Of course she writes back. 

-0-

When Beteseb's dreams caught up to her, she didn't even look back. Hoglasel had been in the fort for three days when she decided he was the man she was going to marry. Outrageously wealthy, noble blood and from the Capital of Geronna. Exactly what she wanted.

It took Ren almost two weeks to make enough noise for her to show up. 

He was at the forts’ doors, the guards holding him against the fence. When he saw her his factions grew soft, delicate. 

“Beteseb, I was so worried-”

_ Get him out of my sight. _ She had told the guards.  _ If he shows up again, throw him in the dungeons. _

He looked even pretty in his confused sandnes, in his howling pain.

-0-

Her father was not happy, but he was proud. Her mother even more so.

“Oh, if you could marry Hoglasel…” she would say, brushing Beteseb´s long hair.

Apélira was too nice to be happy about it. Giralda was static.

Some incidents later, Eovordin, in the hall. Right before dinner.

_ “ _ That was cold, sister. Even for you.”

-0-

When she left, she left the letters behind.

-0-

The weather in Geronna is colder than it ever was in Tentudia, but also less harsh. Years ago Beteseb had never seen the sea, now she drinks outrageously expensive wine while the salty ocean breeze plays with her golden hair. Hoglasel is inside.

Some girls stuck up their noses to her, the lowly born girl from  _ Estrema _ , but she doesn't care. There used to be a lot more, before she set them straight. They learned not to take her for a fool. 

She is going to marry the second cousin of the prince. Her face would be up there, with those of Kings and Queens. Finally, just as she had always wanted. Her job was not finished, it never truly was, but she let herself enjoy the moment. The wine was sweet on her lips, the sun warm against her skin. Noise coming from the party behind her mixed beautifully with the waves crashing against the shore.

Beteseb takes another drink for her cup. She will have to return home in the summer, this time. Hoglasel's parents have insisted on her staying with them now that her last year of boarding school is over, but she knows better. The old couple were exalted to see her wanting to return home. They are a very traditional family, and want to think their son will marry someone who finds family as important as they do. She can't avoid it, now.

There is movement behind her, and Hoglasel kisses her softly on the cheek.

“We are moving inside, love. Feel free to join us if you want.”

He smiles at her, all soft angles and dark skin. When he leaves, she turns back to watch the sea.

He doesn't smell like mint. 

Not for the first time in the last months, her mind wonders if Ren will still be there when she comes back. It's a strange idea, ethereal as the caress of the breeze, yet it hangs around her mind until the sun goes down and she goes back inside the castle to smile at his future fiance's guests.

**Author's Note:**

> I commissioned and AMAZING art for this, I´ll add a link as soon as possible. You should all commission artists, it pays off. Specially if you go with [snake-queen7](https://https://snake-queen7.tumblr.com//) WHAT AN ARTIST.
> 
> And come hang at my tumblr: [acnara](https://acnara.tumblr.com/) if you feel like it!


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